Mary Hagedorn studies coral reproduction and times fieldwork to lunar phases to collect sperm and eggs for cryopreservation and larval rearing. Fieldwork is unpredictable because corals spawn near full moons and may require dozens of nights of diving to capture gametes. Hagedorn cryopreserves coral sperm, transports samples to labs, rears larvae and releases them to aid reef recovery. Hagedorn and collaborators propose a frozen lunar repository in a permanently shadowed polar region on the Moon to bank tissue samples from endangered, threatened and priority species. The repository aims to preserve pollinators and ecosystem engineers and serve as a backup to restore life after catastrophic loss.
To collect precious fragments of new coral life, she must carefully synchronize her activities to the Moon's phases. Corals breed at or near a full moon, releasing a blizzard of sperm and eggs into shimmering waters, but the unpredictability of which full moon corals choose makes fieldwork a gamble. On one trip "we dove for 60 nights straight" before capturing the magic moment, Hagedorn says.
The patience and persistence required to collect coral sperm, cryopreserve it, transport it to the laboratory for rearing coral larvae and then releasing them into the ocean could serve her well for another planned mission: a literal moonshot to preserve threatened organisms. Hagedorn, a research scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Kāne'ohe, Hawaii, is part of an interdisciplinary team proposing to build a frozen repository in a permanently shadowed polar area on the far side of the Moon.
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